‘Ridiculous? It's really off the scale'

Mark Phillips reviews the current global travel and competition challenges

- Mark Phillips

COVID-19 has changed life so much – it’s a struggle even to begin to understand what the new normal will be. Add Brexit on top of that and we almost have the perfect storm, certainly for those of us who have to travel to make a living. The paperwork involved in moving from one country to another, particularly with animals, is off the scale of ridiculousness.

Having to take your truck to mainland Europe or Ireland to get it certified – and the cost involved – is just the start. The 32 pages of vet papers to go abroad and the time that it takes to get them processed at the border is unbelievable, and if you want to take your dog as well, that’s another whole raft of time, money and bureaucracy gone mad.

The politicians are lucky that a lot of the Brexit hassles have been overshadowed and kept out of the news by Covid.

We hope things will improve, but in the meantime European events that rely on a substantial entry from the UK are going to find things tough because most British-based riders will support home events. Will those events have the capacity for the increased demand?